Hot on the heels of celebrities who believe the perfect shoe should resemble a bejewelled crab's claw comes an exhibition dedicated to shoes designed to be almost totally unwearable.

Shoes for Show: the Sculptural Art of High Heels, which opens in London next month, demonstrates that shoes can blur the boundary between art and fashion.

"I wanted not to dismiss the functionality [of the shoes], but to focus on their beauty by placing them in the context of a gallery as sculptural pieces of art," explained the exhibition's curator, Shonagh Marshall. "I wanted to highlight the mathematical proportion and precision that goes into shoe design."

Among the exhibits are the shoes worn by Beyoncé in the video Run the World (Girls): created by the maverick British designer Gareth Pugh, they resemble medieval face armour.

And proof that the obsession with crazy shoes pervades all levels of culture comes in the form of a pair of gold platform sandals designed by Rupert Sanderson for Verdi's Aida at the Royal Opera House last year. But unwalkable shoes are not the preserve of the modern era, as the oldest exhibit proves. The "prize shoe", on loan from the Northampton museum's shoe collection, dates back to the Great Exhibition of 1851. With a four-inch heel and impossibly fine embroidery, it was designed to showcase the talent of its anonymous maker rather than actually be worn.

Elsewhere in the exhibition a pair of Turkish bath shoes with wooden platform soles from 1890 were supposedly made with functionality in mind (to raise the wearer above the dirty puddles). But their mother of pearl embroidery and liability to cause injury on a slippery marble floor suggest a more decorative purpose.

News of the exhibition came in the week top shoe designer Christian Louboutin – whose en pointe Swarovski-encrusted ballet stilettos for the ENO are also included in the exhibition – caused a stir with comments linking high heels to the female libido.

Louboutin reportedly said "putting your foot in a heel, you are putting yourself in a possibly orgasmic situation", an idea that had feminists rolling their eyes and yawning.

Marshall, however, said this exhibition would not be examining Louboutin's theory: "I feel like that's old ground," she said. "I didn't want to do that discussion."

Javari.co.uk presents Shoes for Show: the Sculptural Art of High Heels is on at the Loading Bay, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1, from 4 – 8 November